The Benefit in Vetting Potential Clients

Entrepreneurs live to bend the rules. It’s not malicious, we just see the world a bit differently.

I was fired from my first job, working as a member of the IT staff at my high school, shortly after starting. While most would simply accept it and move on, I didn’t. Instead, I called a meeting with the school headmaster, stated my case, and was rehired with a 100% raise. This taught me that simply accepting what is given to you isn’t always the way to go.

Four years later, as a sophomore in college, I started my first business. By senior year I had my first full-time employee while taking an 18-hour class load and working full time. We had only $2,500 in the bank and couldn’t afford to “take it easy.”

I worked during classes, left for meetings, skipped class and missed exams. It was incredibly difficult, but that time taught me the value of being cautious about who you take on as a client, because a poor fit could mean the end of a fledgling business for busy founders.

How (And Why) You Should Vet Potential Clients

In the early days, we decided to take on a prospect despite having reservations about working with them. By ignoring these instincts, we found ourselves working with someone who didn’t care about our business being able to finish his work, just how much he could get out of us. For example, in the middle of building the website, he decided that he wanted a second website for free. When I let him know that wasn’t in our discussions or agreement, he replied, “Well, the way I see it you’re a young kid, and I can sue you. Would you rather be sued or build a second site for free?” We built the site, and I learned to trust my gut.

Fast forward 11 years, and I still take that lesson with me into every prospective client meeting. Rather than seeing every potential sale as a “must-have,” we instead treat the meeting as if we are looking to hire a new person. They have to check the boxes for us in being a good, honest company that is genuinely interested in succeeding the right way. They have to recognize the value in our work and be willing to let us bring our creativity to bear in helping them. If any of those criteria aren’t met, we’ll refer them to another developer for the project.

If they check the right boxes, we then ask the question: “Is this the best opportunity possible given the limited time we have available?” Under these filters, we have turned down approximately 75% of the companies who come to us for a redesign.

The Benefits of Being Picky

On the surface, that might seem completely crazy, but consider the costs that have come from clients you took on who weren’t a fit. The amount of emotional energy trying to satiate a client who would never be happy, the time spent doing things you knew weren’t in their best interests because they didn’t trust you to guide them — these are real costs that cannot be understated. Now consider the power you have to prevent those situations from happening in the first place.

I won’t claim we’re always 100% accurate on this, but making the decision to actively avoid those situations wherever possible has allowed us to grow into an awarded and recognized company in our space, while creating work that our entire team can be proud of.

There’s no shame in turning away business, because no matter who you are or what you do, the fact is that you won’t be the best fit for everyone. Recognize and embrace that fact the next time you take a sales meeting. Instead of making it about why you need the business, make it about what makes that organization special and whether they are going to be a true fit for what you can do for them. If so, you’ll knock it out of the park. If not, have the courage to send that business to someone who you know will do it better based on their needs.

BusinessCollective, launched in partnership with Citi, is a virtual mentorship program powered by North America’s most ambitious young thought leaders, entrepreneurs, executives and small business owners.